Jess McDiarmid
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, December 19, 2007
YELLOWKNIFE - City council adopted the 2008 budget Monday night in a 6-2 vote, sealing a tax increase of 2.98 per cent.
Councillors David Wind and Dave McCann voted against the budget that earmarks roughly $56.5 million in spending and $59.7 million in revenue.
Council changes - and attempted changes - to the 2008-2010 budget
• Councillors voted against putting another $8,000 toward lunches at meetings.
• A motion to put $58,000 to maintain 42 new garbage cans downtown was defeated.
• Two firefighter positions starting in July 2008 were added. Two more positions in the 2009 budget were recommended.
• Renovations worth $65,000 to the library washrooms were moved forward to be done in 2008 instead of 2010 as planned in the draft budget.
• Councillors put $30,000 toward an implementation plan for the Get Yk Clean report.
• The creation of a social plan development committee had $20,000 allocated to it.
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McCann said he wouldn't support the document because he wanted more data to measure performance and use in decision-making. For example, performance data on each city division should be posted online monthly, he said.
"Without that ... it's impossible to make management corrections and improvements," said McCann.
Better information would help create savings that could be put toward new programs and initiatives, he said.
"The status quo has too much traction in how things are done at city hall," said McCann, who also said he was glad tax increases were lower than the norm for other cities and debt was going down while reserves were going up.
Both McCann and Wind said they were disappointed the budget didn't prioritize expenditures to help councillors if they wanted to cut back spending.
Wind said since he couldn't see what a budget with no tax increase looked like, he couldn't justify a hike.
"Because I can't find it in my heart, that justification, I feel I really have no choice but to vote against adopting this budget," said Wind.
Other councillors said the document represented a "consensus budget" and criticized McCann and Wind for their votes.
"If you vote against this budget, you're voting against your own work," said Kennedy.
"While it's very easy to come in at the end and review the budget, it's a lot harder to produce it."
Councillors said they were pleased with additional money for a social plan, staff increases to the fire department, community services and public works, the Community Energy Plan and paying down the debt with no new borrowing.
"We're going to be paying a little bit more next year but we're going to be getting a whole lot more," said Coun. Paul Falvo.
